Star Wars: Rebirth

The Legacy Era's aftermath led to an era of rebirth for the Empire, and the Empire's enemies.

After planning out the attack on the Senate District, the party set out to go into position. Yun Brodal and his droid left for the Nest along with the others not participating in the assault while taking Sics’enuluo’hassiss under watch. E5 joined as soon he was finished with his workshop.

Arken spoke to the party more of the plan and of his own fate as well. Zendral commented that Arken was getting too fatalistic, and claimed that Arken would realize what he really needed to do in the face of death. Arken seemed to acknowledge that, but didn’t seem to put much more thought into that as he released the broadcast.

The party and the crew that wished to join in the fight rushed to the Senate District to see the fighting underway, while Zendral rushed to get the Nsiss Clawcraft in flight. The messenger was getting continuous calls from the factions that have agreed to help the party pertaining to whether or not they are coming. Issilum and Senlet split from the party later, and snuck to meet the stealth crew.

Issilum and Senlet found themselves having to work with the twin Ewok technicians Upik & Kipu, the witch-looking Jensaarai who called herself “Warlock”, and a Miraluka explosives expert who is well acquainted with Visase named Tress Wecen.

Zendral was busy taking the clawcraft to the Senate District, but the rest of the party found the rest of the assault team well underway with the attack that had started a few minutes ago. The police had lined up their vehicles and units into formation to form a wall to keep the rioters from getting inside. The area between the rioter line and the police was covered in debris and flames.

Standing beside the party are many from different backgrounds and lifestyles who are now working together to topple the Sith rule of the Galactic Federation. Among those are as follows:

Wooshgruuw, who quietly drew his two Ryyk Blades and prepared to charge.
Korot, who commanded Verin stay behind Simon so that Verin won’t get killed by crossfire before Korot prepared to rush the police without his weapons drawn.
The Jensaraai who were Tafin Langgek, “Rancor”, and Krogguss. “Rancor” was raving with excitement while Krogguss and Tafin showed more refinement on the coming battle.
Visase’s old Police Team who were also present was Corporal Reiss Vingen, Jerec Hysen, and Feuthan Lireth. Reiss rushed in with a two-handed vibrosword, Jerec used a Blaster Rifle with a lot of sniper attachments to it, while Feuthan found himself trying to use his missile launcher to destroy more than Simon could.
Jedi Master Choon Zadooz and Padawan Mevas were the few Jedi who managed to flee the temple when the order began to turn on itself from within.
Harbu Nord and Rixx were also present along with some of his best Banished warriors.
The leaders of the Coruscant Street Tribe were present as well. The Deno Lane Boys leader “Nodaz” came in on a speeder bike along with some of the rest of his gang, while the rest went on foot holding very expensive looking weapons. Eroll Skav of the Undercity Crusaders came in decked out with the weapons and gear found from the Galactic Axis crates on Feibraxa, while Ketki of the Kryndr Gowakk came in with weapons representing Twi’lek heritage (Namely swords, maces, and energy balls).
The Disciples of Justice were first and interspersed within the rioters.

Issilum and his crew snuck inside of the Law Enforcement Headquarters and scouted out the ventilation grates. Issilum them came up with the plan for one of the Ewoks to go and blow up the armory with whatever explosives were inside as a distraction while Senlet intimidated the dispatchers to alert the facility of a chemical leak and a need to evacuate.

The initial explosion took out that dispatch office along with a good portion of that hallway. With Senlet and “Warlock” working on keeping the other dispatchers in line and keeping the guards from patrolling; Issilum, Tress, and Upik worked to plant the other explosives in the walls while Kipu worked on rewiring each security droid to rush out and attack the guards.

The battle outside was chaos. The rioters pushed forward but most were mowed down before they even made it to the police lines. Orwell, Visase, Hartel, and Taral led the charge with the other melee following close behind. The ranged support from Kader and the others using ranged and heavy weapon support have helped in softening the lines. Later, Zendral arrived and started to harass the armored vehicles with starfighter lasercannon-fire.

The police’s skills were inadequate to damage any of the others who weren’t rioters, and their concerns became reality when the likes or Orwell and “Rancor” began to cleave through the lot of them. Visase rushed to kill a laser gunner within an armored vehicle with the intent to commandeer the vehicle.

The rioters began to stop trinkling in as soon as police forces arrived down the road to quell the violence.

Arken Taro mentioned that some of his proxy stations have been shut down already and that he has many more left. Only the sounds of Arken talking on the big screens on Coruscant and the commentary of Darth Maccus were heard blaring over the sounds of the heated battle below that is still going strong.

Temnoz positioned himself in a stance that Taral recognized as being part of the lightsaber art of Soresu, meaning that Temnoz was prepared to counter any ranged attack made against him. Then the projection of Maccus claimed that the fight was too boring and activated a contraption that existed within the room that would target random party members. This mechanism encased them in a powerful shield and then amplified the gravity where they stood.

Maccus then told the party that to disrupt the mechanisms generating the gravity, that they only need to shoot the cone generating the field.

Temnoz used his force powers to teleport around the room and shoot Force Lightning at the party. The party who broke out of the gravity generators found that their muscles adjusted to make themselves feel even lighter, allowing them to move faster and hit harder. Still, Temnoz made it very difficult to be reached- much less struck.

Zendral thought to strike Temnoz with his volt cannon, only for Temnoz to reflect it back and shock Zendral. Visase, catching on to the fact that lightsabers have been unsuccessful at reflecting sonic attacks tried to shoot Temnoz with her sonic pistol. While Visase’s attack wasn’t reflected back, it did explode into a rather uncomfortable sounding shockwave.

Orwell and Polis both found chasing Temnoz around the room with his teleporting to be frustrating. Orwell even stopped chasing Temnoz to wait for him to appear near him.

During the battle, the Core in the room beyond the window suddenly levitated and flashed, and then tore the midichlorians out of the seas of force sensitives trapped in the room. Maccus announced the actions of the Core and the implications it has for the rest of the galaxy with childish glee. With that, the battle resumed with Visase biding her anger before being able to release it on Temnoz with a series of lightning fast and heavy strikes that bored several holes in Temnoz’s body.

With Temnoz barely able to stand after the continued assault by Visase and Taral, Orwell finished the fight by cleaving Temnoz’s arm off. Visase then pulled out her pistol, and angrily unloaded her rounds on Temnoz’s head until there were no rounds left.

Maccus gave the party a round of applause after he chugged the last of his wine down, after which point, Maccus gave away his reasons for telling the party so much. Orwell figured it was Maccus taunting them, but Maccus denied that, instead telling the party that they were the most fun and interesting thing to happen since Dalbar stepped up his game in resisting the Sith before being taken out of power of course. Maccus also explained that Sics’enuluo’hassiss came through with his plans and finally assaulted E5-Z18’s new headquarters with the help of a gang called the Faded Tapuul and apparently made off with Rea and Thirra Taro. Maccus then said that it would be best to go and see to them and maybe strike against Orm after that, since a good challenge would do Orm some good. The other choice was to go after Maccus, but with the army in the way and being a bit far away, Maccus cautioned against it.

Orwell tried to shout Maccus down, but Maccus called Orwell things like “predictable for someone so interesting”. Darth Maccus ended his chat with the party with a “may the force serve you well” and a “toodles”.

Orwell attacked the control console on the way back to the Nest. Back on the Nest, the party flew back to Coruscant, but on the way observed the space station orbiting Coruscant Prime. The space station now has a tendril of star plasma reaching up to it as the station itself lit up. Back at E5’s bombed out hideout which was littered with the bodies of the Faded Tapuul hidden beneath the rubble. The security droids are destroyed, as was Saiz who E5 managed to reprogram. Niuulaj and Captain Harok Previl are both lying dead near the doors to the bedroom, though Harok Previl looked to have been returning fire. E5-Z18’s processor was broken as well. Zendral feared that E5 cannot be fixed without an intact processor, but as it turns out after talking to Korot, that Henea was given a backup processor by E5.

Korot had captured Sics’enuluo’hassiss in the raid, and tied him up. Taral and Visase both had some fun interrogating the Chiss; using Temnoz’s lightsaber to keep Enul fearful. During which time, Zendral visited Verin and promised to Verin that he would do everything he could to save his family. In the meanwhile, Enul spilled the beans, telling him that it was his old secretary who was also a trained assassin named Vass’inum’niche that managed to capture both Rea and Thirra before taking them to the Galactic Senate.

Shortly after, E5 returned to the room with Henea, Zendral, Verin, and Korot in tow with E5 complaining angrily in Binary that they destroyed his vocabulator.

Arken Taro also called the party and, while trying to keep his cool, gave away what little he knew of the situation, and that the party had collected stellar footage of Darth Maccus himself giving himself away. Arken said that his broadcast is ready, but that it was time for the party to plan an assault on the Senate District in order to satisfy Arken’s last demands: To see to confirming the fate of his wife and daughter.

Issilum sped past the police blockade set up on Corellia, and with the help of Zendral’s and Simon’s work with the Nest’s systems, managed to fly the Nest out of range of the police’s tractor beams and into hyperspace towards Coruscant.

Along the way to Coruscant, Kader brought up that the party should have killed Dijiec while they had the chance; but there was nothing they could do about it now. While listening to the news, the party saw footage of themselves from the view of the police cruisers jumping on cars; and looking to be defending the escaping Dijiec the Hutt. The reporters at the time were giving limited commentary based on what little information that they had. Nonetheless, this sight prompted Visase to contact Arken Taro and inquire at whether or not he has his broadcast ready.

Arken’s weary projection answered that while he has enough dirt and evidence to reveal the Sith’s place in the galactic government, it lacks the sensation that would spark enough intergalactic outrage to inspire civil disobedience to the new powers in the government. Then Arken asked if the party had managed to learn anything from Dijiec. With the location of the factory that Dijiec was sending force sensitives to revealed, Arken asked that the party go and investigate with his camera droids to film anything that could be seen about the factory. The droids will in turn emit the recordings to Arken via an encrypted connection which will be used for Arken’s broadcast.

Kader voiced that he didn’t care for those “mites” crawling on him, but Arken assured him that the mites were practically invisible to the naked eye, and won’t crawl on the skin. With that, Kader calmed down a little.

Arken told the party that his droid Arbet is waiting for them to arrive at E5’s new hideout, and that he will be giving the party the briefing and the necessary equipment for the task with the factory. Arken stated that he wanted to talk to his family once the party had arrived at E5’s hideout.

Once at E5’s hideout, the party took a look at the security measures that E5 had erected. Mostly, everything in the hideout was rigged to either shoot blaster bolts or explode or both. Most of the crew volunteered to look after Arken’s family within the facility, while Yun Brodal requested to stay on board the Nest. Visase requested that E5 start looking for contacts that can supply starship parts; the less questions asked the better. E5 agreed and even volunteered to do that for free.

Arbet was also there, and gave each of the party a tiny box containing the camera mite. Arbet also requested for Korech and Voroth to come with him to where Arken was hiding. After making sure that the party was up to par with the plan for Emeriss’ secret factory, and after reprogramming Simon’s camera mite to remain on him; Arbet took his leave with Korech and Voroth in tow.

The family was seen in the corner of the hideout surrounding a holoprojector with Arken’s image on it who were all talking quietly and with a highly concerning air about it. Once that projector went off, the party answered their own to find Arken back on it. Arken relayed gratitude that his family has for the party, and then checked if they had any more questions before they set off to investigate. Without too many, Arken said a heavy farewell; and the party set off on the overly quiet trip on the Nest, with only the sound of the Newsprojector on board breaking the silence.

In short time, the projector began to embellish more details. On the projector, Camth Drucas (Darth Maccus) announced the defeat of Mand’alore the Reborn and his becoming of the new Mand’alore. In an interview with Camth Drucas, Camth revealed that he had been attacked by 5 Jedi who were aligned with the traitorous Dalbar; and then promised to clean up the Jedi Order. Camth Drucas spoke that he had to maintain order on Mand’alore before he could send the soldiers home, as well as some of the titles he might be getting along with Mand’alore; such as Mand’alore the Usurper, the Foreign, or the Insane.

The next news report went back to the party’s antics on Corellia, but this time, Jedi Master Keiran called the agency with information on the party, who was behind it, and the fate of the bounty hunter (Toba Gra) that Keiran sent after Dijiec. Each member of the party’s names and a brief history of them are now known to the galaxy at large, along with a 2,000,000 Credit bounty on each of their heads. The head of Arken Taro however is 50,000,000 Credits for being the mastermind in Dijiec’s salvation, and keeping justice from happening. Toba Gra had sustained serious head injuries from the battle but will pull through. Orwell reacted by denting the table he was sitting at with the pound of his fist, which prompted Yun Brodal’s droid to go and repair the table’s shape.

The last report was on Coruscant’s abnormally busy traffic, with civilians being given travel vouchers by social activists that paid for a trip to a planet along the well traveled hyperspace lanes of their choice, and then a return trip back to Coruscant. The reasons being for public safety so that the Jedi Order can do their cleaning operations with reduced collateral.

That was when the party realized that they were now truly alone, especially when the Nest exited hyperspace within Chiss space. The location might have been one of great beauty- with a clear view of a blue and pink nebula nearby had it not been for the large imposing space station a distance away.

The party was then contacted by Emeriss, only the one who answered it wasn’t specifically from Emeriss Arms. The man, who had his lower face tattooed in the archaic symbol of a sun, and his upper face tattooed with four moons each in a different phase who wore a long dark robe and cloak, introduced himself as Darth Temnoz. Temnoz spoke to the party about how they were expected to arrive, and how excited his master Darth Maccus was excited about the party’s activity in fighting against him. Temnoz said simply that he wished to show the party around the facility on Maccus’ wishes. With a last, “Watch for the debris”, Issilum swore and told the party to look ahead at the countless freefloating bodies of Plathuui and Feibrax ejected from the space station and into space. Visase turned off the messenger, and the party looked ahead with the mites doing their work.

Landing within the facility, Temnoz appeared out of thin air; and beckoned the party to follow him. Temnoz said that he was open to questions while the tour happened, and then Temnoz explained the lack of security in the facility was due to their lack of need for security.

Then Temnoz brought the party to a spacious room with a window on the side that overlooked a room about the size of the space station itself. In that room beyond the window was a sea of Plathuui, Feibrax, other species, including quite a few wearing the robes of the Jedi Order. This sea of sentients are encircled around a large round construct that looks like a power core to a very large spacecraft. It flashed once, and the sea of sentients rippled in panic.

Temnoz spoke of the construct as the final ingredient to the completion of the space platform orbiting Coruscant Prime. The construct only needs to develop a hunger for the force, and to whet its appetite, the construct must consume an astronomical amount of midichlorians- midichlorians that only force sensitives could provide. The party was holding themselves back, even when the holoprojector on the control console activated to reveal a projection of Camth Drucas (Darth Maccus) sitting at a table with a plate of food in front of him, and the mask of Mand’alore on the top of the table as well. Maccus greeted the party with a “hi” before he started complaining about the taste of Mandalorian food tasting like poison, before realizing that poison probably made the food more edible.

Maccus asked Visase excitedly about how she felt about being the first Jedi in the Jedi Order to be indoctrinated into the order by a Sith Lord. Visase said that she was the second while pointing to Taral. Maccus insisted that Visase was first due to Dalbar being a Jedi.

Temnoz continued to talk about the core destined to consume the force sensitives brought into the room, and the destiny of the space platform over Coruscant Prime being that of a factory to provide the new Sith Order with the best army to begin their conquest of the galaxy at the cost of using the ambient force around the platform to make it possible.

At that moment, Hartel snapped an ionized the holoprojector Maccus was using- frying it. Orwell swung his Arg’garok at Temnoz who narrowly dodged the attack before disappearing and then reappearing at the other side of the room with an ignited lightsaber out in a highly specialized stance.

In short order, the control panel opened up another slot for a spare holoprojector with Maccus back online. Maccus, between hideous cackling, claimed that he almost missed out at the start of his entertainment, and then reassured the party that Maccus wanted the party to win this fight; but that Maccus was going to help.

Atop the train, the rain and wind pelted the party as they looked forward at what was ahead. Toba Gra stood atop the train up ahead, putting an oddly shaped round of ammunition into his gun. Zendral and Kader both recognized it as a homing beacon. Just before the party could react, Toba Gra fired it into Dijiec’s speeder- bypassing his shields and hooking on to his speeder.

Accompanying Toba Gra were 4 police cruisers who were firing their pistols at Dijiec’s bike, but his shield deflected all of the strikes.

The party rushed to spread out to protect Dijiec before Toba Gra killed him. Polis started by shooting a police cruiser, with Visase finishing the cruiser off by striking it down with her lightsaber pike before bounding back up to the top of the train. Zendral and Kader both took pot shots, while Orwell jumped down onto a car and started to pry the roof off of it with his bare hands. Taral rushed over to catch up to Toba Gra, while Hartel surged ahead, jumped onto a car, and ionized Toba Gra’s rifle- causing it to become useless.

The police cruisers then proceeded to try to run into the party, notably Hartel and Orwell. Orwell got knocked down, while Hartel managed to jump on top of the cruiser that tried to ram him. The other cruiser tried to deploy their police officers to slow the Jedi down; but Taral force pushed them aside and down into the depths of Corellia. Visase then tried to slash at Toba Gra with her lightsaber pike, but Toba Gra threw his cloak at her which proved to be a weighted cloak too- disrupting her movements. Then Toba Gra brandished his gauntlets, which once they touched Visase’s lightsaber caused the lightsaber to deactivate. Zendral decided to go inside the train to figure out another course of action, breaking into one of the passenger’s windows and causing a panic amongst the passengers and the conductor. Kader reprogrammed and modified a flying droid to crash and explode into a police car, while Polis tried to keep the other police cars distracted by forcing the far that he is riding on to crash into the others. Hartel tried breaking into his police car’s windshield; which didn’t work, but it did cause the driver to his the breaks as hard as he could, causing the officer in the front seat to bash his head through the windshield and knocking himself unconscious.

Toba Gra had also been firing at Dijiec from a modified crossbow that fires explosive crossbow bolts; weakening Dijiec’s systems and otherwise showing impressive wrist-work when it came to drawing and sheathing his weapons in a flash. Toba Gra then introduced other tricks on his person, such as the fact that the bottoms of his armor come with a propulsion system that can make him fly a far distance quickly. Toba tried to incinerate Visase’s face with it first, but she erected a force shield to block the impact.

Meanwhile, Orwell got into his vehicle and tried to figure out how to steer the vehicle while the rain pelted him. Zendral had to talk the passengers in the train down from making assumptions about his rather suspicious behavior. Polis made sure to keep the newly arrived police cruisers from getting close to the party. Kader and Simon stood back to take shots at Toba Gra. in particular, Simon blew up two cars with one missile, and left a nasty scorch mark on Toba’s armor while nearly getting Toba to drop down into Corellia below. Taral showed that with the force, he could be quite and acrobat, and managed to catch up to Toba Gra. Visase did a little bit of acrobatics in between firing her blaster pistol at Toba Gra. Zendral, finding out that Toba Gra is now away from the train has taken the liberty of pushing himself back onto the roof.

Toba Gra continued to take shots at Dijiec even as Taral drew closer. Once Toba Gra drew out his Mandalorian Iron Vibroblade, Taral hammered Toba Gra with Force Lightning- even has the dark side flooded back to Taral.

Hartel had managed to break into the police cruiser, and dropped a grenade behind him to finish off the last of the police within. With a violent explosion, the cruiser was ripped in half, and Hartel found himself flying the half of the ship towards Toba’s location before Hartel had to jump out to confront him. Zendral tried to talk to Dijiec who simply remarked that they fought a common enemy today. Dijiec ultimately took down the last police cruiser remaining- the one that Polis was lying on after Polis had decimated the others with a combination of leverage, strength, and poor driving on the police’s end.

It was when the party surrounded Toba Gra that Orwell accelerated his vehicle towards the one Toba Gra was standing on. Then Orwell leaped out of his vehicle; the force itself feeding into Orwell’s actions in a way that got Taral, Visase, and Hartel to sense it. Toba Gra muttered about waiting for Orwell to show up, when Orwell immediately grabbed him; hoisted him over his head, and then slamming him down on the car such that his head was in range of getting smashed by the speeding car that Orwell was driving.

When the car smashed into Toba Gra’s head- the head of Toba Gra was surprisingly intact, but Toba’s body was limp. Toba’s was then dropped down into the depths of Corellia; and before the party could see the body fall much further, they entered a tunnel; and turned towards Dijiec.

Dijiec made the party a deal. He would tell them all he knew of Orm and Orm’s plans in return for his safe escape from Corellia. Visase frustratingly agreed. Dijiec gave what little he knew of Orm, but what he did know was where to hit Orm. Dijiec mentioned in his talk that he knew of Zendral’s sister Ari’mavve’dreuoll, and Dijiec assured Zendral that it was unlikely that Orm or Emeriss would have her dead; due to the rarity of force sensitive Chiss. Dijiec continued his talk to Zendral by giving Zendral the coordinates to the secret Emeriss factory that he had been taking the force sensitives and the non-force sensitives too; and that if Zendral wanted to hurt Orm, he should start there. When asked why he took the non-force sensitives, Dijiec responded that it was to ensure cooperation with the population at large for longer. Dijiec only knows about Emeriss from his conversations with Emeriss’ old CEO Valen’resh’inrokini who is faring far worse than Dijiec he is sure.

Dijiec asked if that was everything the party wanted to ask him. Visase told him to get out of here. The party then hijacked the cars they were standing on top of when speaking to Dijiec, and drove back to the Nest who was having their own shootout with law enforcement. With the party and the crew back together, Issilum shot the party back off into the stars.

With the Figo’s Wind in its final explosive throes, Issilum initiated for the Nest to go into hyperspace towards Corellia. With the voyage taking 2 hours, Visase wasn’t too pleased with that speed and asked if Issilum could make the ship go faster. Issilum said that he would need someone to override the hyperspace engine, to which Visase requested Zendral to do.

Zendral saw to the hyperspace engine, removed the inhibitors on the engine; and managed to boost the output of the engine such that the voyage will take 45 minutes instead of 2 hours at the price of jolting the ship about, and disturbing Visase’s meditations. Zendral then had to keep the engine cool during that time, but Visase sent Simon to assist Zendral in his endeavors.

Meanwhile, Verin sat down with Kader with some sparkling water and asked him about what he had done and what kind of past he and Toba Gra had together. Kader kept his commentary short, but he and Toba Gra just knew of each other since they both worked in the same profession. Also, Kader explained to Verin that the “Rok’Ulor” was a mythical beast in Durese folklore that was elusive and deadly to the pre-spaceflight Duros.

As the conversation with Kader went on, Verin segued the conversation to being about his concerns for his family as well as the purpose and motivations of the Sith Order, and how with his force sensitive mother and sister on board and with the party hot on the trail of Dijiec and Orm, he expressed his fears that the party would just be delivering his family right into their hands and inquired about a safe place to keep them for when the party finds out about the place Dijiec was taking the force sensitives. The consensus was to stop by E5’s new hideout on Coruscant as a side trip before flying into Chiss space should everything on Corellia go over well enough.

Once at Corellia, the party declared themselves when a police officer stopped them. In particular, the officer mentioned that help had already arrived when it came to their investigations to find Dijiec the Hutt who the police were ordered to “Kill on sight”. The party convinced the officer that they were there to see to Dijiec as well, and the officer then let the party through saying that he’ll have someone to meet up with them below to take them to Toba Gra’s location.

Corellia’s megacity was going through a violent storm when the party landed in their selected hangar. The police officer waiting to meet the party took them into a van and flew them to Zif’s Casino where the police have tracked Dijiec’s location from arresting Dijiec’s informants. The police have Zif’s under lockdown, and Toba Gra is likely going to be there to bypass Dijiec’s formidable defenses.

Arriving at the casino, the police officer pointed the party inside where Dijiec was help up. Running through the heavy rain, the party stormed inside the casino, where they heard Toba Gra in the middle of breaking down the doors at the end of the casino. Rushing towards Toba Gra, they heard the commotion- a loud explosion followed by a lot of shouting; especially by the engry aqualish bounty hunter. By the time the party turned a corner they heard copious amounts of blasterfire coming from Toba Gra’s direction, and slowly, the police moblized behind the party to check on what had happened.

When the party looked into the bombed out room, they saw a few dead police officers with numerous stab wounds from spears. Lying dead nearby are the heaped bodies of dead and armed Amani. At the end of the room is a broken window with a hole the size of a very large Hutt. Standing over that hole is the cloaked and armored Toba Gra, shouting about how Dijiec is getting away. When Toba Gra turned around to see the party, he shouted to the police that the party was in league with Dijiec and mean to make sure Dijiec survives. The police, following orders pulls out their pistols and points them at the party.

Off in the distance, a Hutt sized and heavily modified speeder bike is seen weaving in and out of the traffic lanes beside a train track where a train is now thundering on- emerging from a tunnel beneath Zif’s Casino. Quickly, Toba Gra jumped onto the roof of that train and sped in hot pursuit of the fleeing Dijiec. Visase jumped after Toba Gra along with the rest of the party, the police firing their pistols while the party landed on the wet and windswept top of the train.

Quickly, the police patrols are seen converging on Toba Gra’s location atop the train. Toba is seen pulling out a heavily modified rifle, and pointing it at the fleeing Hutt.

Master Archivist Ruda got Hartel to sign the last document that needed to be signed to ensure the return of ownership of the Hoopin’ Slam game to Hartel Stellartrotter. Ruda also said that if Hartel isn’t back by the time Hoopin’ Slam season continues, the game will be run by the monarchy of Onek’weg until Hartel returns.

On the way back to the ship, Zendral asked Hartel why Hartel left a life of fame and fortune to go out traveling. Hartel’s response was “I don’t know”. Issilum prepared the ship for launch at Visase’s command while telling Issilum that she had horrible news. Issilum asked Visase what good news was, and got no answer from her.

On the way back to the Figo’s Wind, Taral was conflicted between contacting Jedi Master Evarr Dreskel, given the revelations of infiltrations within the Jedi Order. Meanwhile, the rest of the party gave the news of Keiran’s status as Orm. Verin Taro brought up the fact that it was Keiran who had saved him and Henea from gangsters when he snuck out of the watch of the party before bringing him and Henea back to E5’s workshop. Verin asked why Keiran wouldn’t have just taken him away if he wanted to control Arken. The thought that Keiran didn’t want to get children involved was one idea proposed by Zendral, but all in all, that action’s motivations were still uncertain.

Deciding to stick with his trust he had in Dreskel before, Taral contacted him and gave him the news of the strong evidence that was found pertaining to Jedi Master Keiran being Orm. Evarr Dreskel wasn’t happy with the news, but claimed that it could make sense given what he and Hassan have learned from their meditations in the now deserted Jedi Temples.

Evarr Dreskel talked of Dalbar’s marks in the force being one of urgency and a need to preserve the Jedi Order in a way that is subtle and out of view from his enemies. With how Dalbar was using the Force, it was as if his enemies were in very close proximity, and Dalbar wanted to remain undetected while he resisted them.

Evarr Dreskel spoke of his knowledge of the Jedi Knight Lire Nok who went missing upon investigating evidence pertaining to Jedi Master Keiran’s corruption, mainly in that “she was a good friend of his”. Evarr Dreskel then said that he and Hassan will return to the Jedi Temple on Coruscant and see if he can find Jedi that aren’t following Keiran’s footsteps. With a hefty farewell, Keiran and Taral signed off.

Arriving back onto the Figo’s Wind, the party was greeted by an excited and bandaged Tavish Brix surrounded by his two body guards who happily announced that his Mon Calamari contact got through to him and deciphered the encryption on Azed Ther’s messages. By the looks of the messages, Dijiec the Hutt was hiding in a derelict Red Dwarf star system known as RD-2380XMAL in a fortress on one of the asteroids, and that the Figo’s Wind will be there by the following morning.

With that, Tavish left the hangar with Korech and Voroth in tow. The party then went to the messenger and relayed Arken Taro the news of what they had found on Ryloth.

Arken nodded his head as if to confirm his own suspicions, and then he stated what he himself has found out. Arken had purchased services from the Bothan Spynet who managed to gain access to Supreme Commander Thaz Welk’s battle plans, and the information that Arken’s spies found was damning. Listed in the plans for the battle of Thorov, there were to be 2 waves of soldiers. The 1st wave was the recruits and the army of the Triumvirate equipped with the starships and weapons that were up to the grade that the military of the Triumvirate had before hiring Emeriss Arms. The 2nd wave on the other hand was equipped with highly advanced weaponry of Emeriss make and consisted of soldiers with designation codes that consisted of numerical and alphabetical combinations that are eerily reminesent of the designation codes for the Gen’Dai clones found in Zon Fus’ laboratory; though more specifically, they are Polis’ clones. This 2nd wave was to destroy the 1st wave of recruits and soldiers.

Another thing that Arken spoke of was of what Yun Brodal spoke to him about the 2nd Battle of Thorov. Apparently, the Mandalorian starships had downgraded a lot since last the Federation fought them twenty years ago. They downgraded to the point that even the non-Emeriss grade ships of the Federation can easily go toe to toe with them. According to information found by the Bothan Spynet however, there was strong evidence that those old Mandalorian ships were transferred into Federation hands to be used against Mandalore.

And now, those ships were to also be used against the Federation’s public standing army.

Taral voiced his concern about the clones, especially with earlier evidence of Zon Fus’ newfound ability to infuse force sensitivity genetically into beings that weren’t originally force sensitive. Mainly, Taral was concerned that the entire army of clones was force sensitive. Arken explained that it was unlikely, due in part to other findings by the Spynet. The Spynet reported that the Gen’Dai clone army was heavily employing other outside instruments to power their starships. They are cylindrical objects that Arken says can comfortably fit into the hole-slot in the stolen prototype Nsiss Clawcraft. These objects contain synthetic midichlorians that infuses its force sensitivity with the ship to make the ship force sensitive for a short time before the cylinder is expended and needs replacing. Arken believed that the process of infusing force sensitivity is still very expensive to do, such that infusing an entire army would be too costly.

Arken then pushed that he wanted the people to know of Orm’s existence and what he has done to the Federation’s people. Arken wanted every mother of every dead soldier in the Federation to know who killed their children, to know who started these wars, and to know their selfish reasons for why. Arken stated that he is working to put together a broadcast to override the regular broadcasts detailing all of that information for when he gathers the necessary evidence. For now, Arken has declared himself sick and unable to meet up with the senate, and plans to keep himself sick until the broadcast.

The response from the party has been very against this course of action, mainly due to the fact that the people were already faced with the realization of Dalbar falling to corruption; and another shocking revelation like that will destroy any trust that the people had with the Jedi or their superiors for that matter for years to come. Zendral in particular had a major concern about the people who want no involvement with the chaos that will no doubt ensue once the word came out. Arken’s move in broadcasting the message without abandon would harm the innocent as much as the guilty. Arken paused, but then he asked if Zendral, or anyone else had a better idea than broadcasting the truth of what was going on. The party agreed that the people deserve to know, but that Arken should take more precautions before carrying out his plans.

Arken then decided to go and talk to the fringe and underground political groups on Coruscant to see if he can bring the message out to them that he seeks to reveal the sins of the Galactic Federation, and hope that they can take action and hide the people who want no involvement in the ensuing chaos. The party by and large was still skeptical, but without another idea; they’ve kept their lips shut.

Arken then explained that he can call in his last favors and the last of his money to get the broadcast out. Arken will be bringing the broadcast out from many sources behind many proxy emitters from secure locations, at least until those in league with Orm find him. From there, Arken doesn’t know what will come next.

Arken turned to his wife and children and promised that he will call back before the broadcast comes out. After some more emotional exchanges with his family, Orwell interjected and said that he knows of some people who will guard Arken’s life with their own. Arken was shocked by the offer, but accepted it with grace.

Orwell then called Tavish Brix, and made a deal with him. After Orwell was done with his business with Arken, Orwell will be his loyal bodyguard in exchange for Tavish giving up one of his. Tavish’s answer surprised Orwell when he said that Arken can have both Korech and Voroth and then accepted the deal.

When Korech and Voroth made it on the ship, they accepted Orwell’s proposition for a job and a chance to die for a man with honor.

Arken thanked Orwell profusely for the bodyguards, and then after saying a long drawn out farewell, signed off.

With little else to do for the night, the party decided to retire early amidst the concern that they had for the future.

Visase in particular had a very rough night, and woke up out of her meditation pained and irritated. The rest of the party woke up to the sound of the alarms blaring on the Figo’s Wind. Demanding Tavish for answers, Tavish stated that he found Dijiec’s hideout and has taken to bombarding his makeshift fortress before Dijiec had a chance to escape. Tavish asked if the party was ready to swoop into the base and retrieve Dijiec right now. The party said that they were ready. Then Tavish asked if his family was on board the ship. With a simple yes, Tavish gave the go for the party to fly towards the base.

On the way, the Figo’s Wind made quick work of the makeshift gun turrets such that by the time the Nest made it to the fortress on the asteroid, the defenses were down. Zendral noticed the hasty construction of the fortress as they blasted their way into the hangar door. The inside of the fortress was dark, but when the Nest made it inside; the lights flickered on to reveal the poor workmanship of the fortress. Tavish asked if the party was inside. When they said they were, a shield enveloped the room that the Nest was in, and Tavish then said that he had no choice but to do this.

Visase shouted that they’ve been set up. Rea looked on at and spoke to Tavish with disbelief and anger. Verin and Henea embraced each other when they realized what Tavish meant by his words. Most of the rest of the crew waited for what came next, while Thirra remained oblivious to the gravity of the situation. Korech and Voroth were both angry, but only Orwell blasted out at Tavish swearing that he will kill him when they get out of this situation.

Behind the peaceful looking Tavish walked a hulking aqualish decked out in an assortment of armor and modifications and wore a large cloak draped down to his knees over that armor. The aqualish greeted Orwell like the two were acquainted. Orwell lost it even further, calling that aqualish “soulless” amongst other names. The aqualish introduced himself as Toba Gra to the party, and then explained that he is a bounty hunter by trade. With that in mind, Orm put out a big bounty on the party since they’re coming to learn too much; and Toba Gra could not let it slip past.

After that, Toba Gra ignored much of the party while searching the holoprojector for his quarry. When Toba Gra saw Rea, Thirra, and Verin however; he turned around and punched Tavish hard in the face while calling him incompetent for putting the family where he can’t retrieve them alive to collect a nice bonus from Orm. Tavish Brix got back up with the right side of his face covered in blood and a black eye. Toba then gloated a little about how he can finally kill Orwell as “the one that got away”, and then Toba said a few choice words to Kader while addressing him as “Rok’Ulor” on the grounds of differences in fulfilling their jobs. Kader squinted at Toba and then puffed out more smoke from his cigarillo.

Toba Gra pulled out a detonator and told the party to say their last words. Orwell goaded Toba to do it, while Tavish remained peaceful. When Toba pushed the button, a loud explosion was heard, but the party found themselves and the facility that they were in were both intact. When they looked back at the holo-projector however, the Figo’s Wind was aflame and the power was flickering out. Toba roared in anger at Tavish and demanded an explanation. Tavish said that he should have invested in a more expensive self destruct mechanism. With that, Toba Gra hammered Tavish’s face into the broken and jagged console in front of him, pulled out his blaster pistol; and shot Tavish in the back of the head. The last flicker of the holoprojection was of Toba Gra rushing for the hangar.

Shortly after, the party realized that the shields in the fortress shut off, and that they had gotten one new message from Tavish Brix. It was in the message that Tavish revealed what he was keeping from the party, mainly in that the party had to go to Corellia where Dijiec was hiding amidst the crowd as well as the reason for his chest wound being his implanting of the kill-switch that delivered this message to the party, and then Tavish explained more about Toba Gra and how he came to be under his thumb. The message went on with gratitude for Arken Taro for giving Tavish another way out of his life of piracy, and also a personal thanks to Orwell for inspiring Tavish to oppose Toba in ways that Orwell wouldn’t understand until it was all over. Tavish asked that Verin and Thirra not follow his footsteps, and then Tavish apologized to his sister Rea for everything that had happened. In short, Tavish died with many regrets on his mind and heart but wished that the party catch Dijiec before Toba did, provided Tavish didn’t kill Toba beforehand.

With that, Visase ordered for the ship to make leeway for Corellia. Departing the fortress, the party saw the fire in the sky coming from Tavish’s ship being ripped open, followed by a smaller ship shooting out of the hangar shooting off towards Corellia as well.

The party, knowing that they have little time, follow in hot pursuit of Toba Gra in hopes that they can get information from Dijiec before Toba has a chance to quell the exchange.

With the Hoopin’ Slam game over, the party went over their options and leads to find stuff on Brulu Aloc. Hartel was concerned about being cornered by crowds again, when Kader suggested that Hartel put on a disguise. Hartel stopped for a moment to let the obvious, yet brilliant solution sink in. Hartel attained an extra set of Jedi robes from Visase and from there disguised himself to not be more inconspicuous. When the crowds have dispersed from the parking lots, the party left to move a small ways to the castle of King Onut III to the governmental square. With a little more exploration, the party set upon the Law Library of Onek’weg.

Walking inside of the law library, the receptionist greeted the party and asked what they needed. Hartel at this point asked about his father while taking off his hood, making the receptionist gasp and cover her mouth in surprise. Kader rolled his one good eye at that gesture. The receptionist managed to contain her excitement enough to call for the master archivist to bring Clars Stellartrotter’s last will and testament to bear. The archivist showed the party the last will that the Law Library has on file.

The contents are about what is to be expected; especially with where possessions will go to. The only odd one was to whom the team and the ownership of the Hoopin’ Slam will go to. The name “Unus” was mentioned where everyone expected for Hartel’s name to be there. Orwell insisted on the archivist searching every backup file, and checking the dates for all changes. The archivist came up with blanks in those areas as far as tampering with the evidence is concerned. The archivist reasoned that it was either Clars had specifically asked for these files to be as they are, or all of the files had been carefully and masterfully tampered with. With the party talking about Brulu’s money, they convinced the archivist of the possibility of the files being tampered with.

The archivist had voiced his sympathies for Hartel and the death of his father, but said that there was little he could do unless given evidence of legal tampering. Zendral, at Visase’s behest brought up the Emeriss codebreaker that was used on Clars’ safe, where Clars’ written Last Will was stored. The archivist voiced that it is likely that the mentions of Hartel inheriting the Hoopin’ Slam team would be written on Clars’ copy for sure before he would send it to the archives. With a codebreaker as evidence, the archivist figures that that is good enough evidence that something fishy is going on. The archivist finally introduced himself as Ruda, and wished to help in any way he can. The law library is an extension of the law of King Onut III, and the library has the legal rights to intervene if they believe that the archives are being illegally tampered with. Ruda continued by saying that this could come in the form of gathering evidence towards that end, and ordering the police force of Onek’weg around. While Ruda suggested not calling on the police, Ruda did say that the party can do their own investigations with the use of the police’s resources if given permission from the law library. Ruda then gave a few leads while writing out permission for the party to use the police resources to investigate the issue with Clars’ will.

Ruda talked of Clars’ murderer, a mentally insane and force sensitive Twi’lek named Vlodigurtal Cumquat. Cumquat was a serial killer who goes back for years under the name of “The Reborn Elder”. Among Cumquat’s victims was Jedi Master Keiran’s parents, Cumquat’s parents, and numerous others in addition to Clars. It was when Clars was murdered by a single blaster pistol shot that Cumquat was captured and sentenced to life in prison.

Ruda also suggested checking on Clars’ diary, now in the care of his sister-in-law Nenta. Ruda again said that he hopes to set things right, and hopes that he can legally get the will to say Hartel’s name.

During Ruda’s talking, he had to pull the receptionist aside to act more professional in front of the clients, even famous ones. With the party having a more clear modus operandi, they departed from the law library and plotted their course of action.

Hartel volunteered to go and check on aunt Nenta to get access to his father’s diary, alongside Visase, Kader, Orwell, and Simon.

Zendral figured that the party ought to split up and gather clues faster and to keep from carrying all of the eggs in one basket as they say. Polis, Taral, and Senlet went with Zendral.

Hartel and his side of the party took the bus. The people on the bus found the spectacle bewildering to say the least. Only the bus driver paid no heed to the fact that the party was equipped for war. Driving the party to the last stop closer to the sunny side of Ryloth, Hartel led the party down streets occupied by farm houses. Getting to a farm house surrounded by Bantha, Hartel greeted the child who answered the door as “Junga”. Shortly after, Hartel’s aunt Nenta arrived to welcome the party inside.

Treating the party to tea and biscuits, Hartel caught Nenta up to speed on the smaller less dangerous happenings, while Kader about ate all of the biscuits. Getting to the topic of the diary, Nenta talked about how she has been unable to open Clars’ datapad that he used for a diary. Hartel took it, and entered the password “1234”, and it opened.

The diary talked a good deal of Clars’ relationship with Jedi Master Keiran before he became a Jedi starting from the age of 3. It started out that Clars and Keiran were good childhood friends, when Keiran’s force sensitivity was taken notice by the Jedi Avazh; of whom Clars felt was off in some way. It was when Keiran’s parents were murdered by “The Reborn Elder” that Clars called for Keiran to help him. Despite none of Clars’ problems being of the nature that a Jedi can directly help with, Keiran volunteered to help Clars in any way possible on the promise that Clars not tell anybody of Keiran’s involvement in the coming schemes; especially not the Jedi Order. Clars agreed. Keiran revealed this force reactive dust that he and his friends made that could take on the physical properties of the one focusing on it. The kind that Keiran brought to Clars was brittle and will collapse with a little force. Realizing the potential for a sport that involves explosions, Clars and Keiran collaborated in making the game of “Hoopin’ Slam”. Keiran told Clars that he could be the owner of Hoopin’ Slam, so long as if he writes in his will that Keiran’s master Eridanos becomes the successor. Keiran never made it fully clear that Eridanos was a Jedi like Keiran however.

As time passed on, Clars had gotten a wife who soon became pregnant with Clars’ child. Keiran immediately sensed the force sensitivity eminating from the child, and asked Clars if he wanted the child taken into the Jedi Order. Clars refused; wanting to raise the child and see him grow up, and figuring that if the child were like his mother; that the rigors of discipline would do him no good. Clars wrote that that comment had made Keiran angry for a split second, making Clars jump. Keiran then said that it was only an offer and left it at that. Clars wrote that in as bizarre behavior on the part of Keiran.

The diary kept on going with Clars watching his son Hartel grow up without a mother due to her dying giving birth to him. Keiran kept on pressuring Clars to keep expanding the Hoopin’ Slam sport to larger avenues to make it more valuable, and that when Clars dies, the game will no longer be in his hands. The Reborn Elder is back to being at large, and Keiran said that he would do something about it.

Years later, The Reborn Elder was still at large, and Clars is getting more sad that the game of Hoopin’ Slam isn’t going into Hartel’s hands, given Hartel’s passion for the game. Instead, Clars had to change the inheritance of the game over from Eridanos to Unus due to Eridanos passing away.

Clars mentioned a chance meeting with the Jedi Knight Lire Nok who talked to Clars about the Hoopin’ Slam game and The Reborn Elder’s return. During the conversation, Clars mentioned Keiran having Jedi friends in the Order by the name of Eridanos and Unus. Lire got suspicious since she didn’t recall anyone of those names in the order, and that she never got orders from Keiran to hunt down The Reborn Elder. Lire Nok took it upon herself to investigate. Lire never returned.

That was when Keiran lashed out at Clars, telling him to stop digging dirt on him. Clars told Keiran that he had a lot to hide for a Jedi. Clars immediately after had a change of heart, and decided that; against Clars’ safety, to go and write in his will that he wants Hartel to be the one to inherit the game. Then once the Ryloth-Cup game is over, that Clars would log the changes in the Law Library. The entries ceased after that; given that the next day was the day Clars was assassinated by Vlodigurtal Cumquat, who was then revealed to be The Reborn Elder.

With the diary red, the party excused themselves from Nenta’s home; and rushed to the police station to convene with the other half of the party.

Meanwhile, Zendral tried to convince the police officer at the reception desk in the police station that he wanted to make a documentary of Cumquat. When the cop didn’t buy it and demanded official permission; that was when Zendral showed the official documentation from Ruda the archivist. Disregarding Zendral’s Kowakian Monkey-Lizard business, the cop pointed the way to the interrogation cell. Getting to the cell, the police told the party that they were welcome to use any of the instruments if it meant squeezing information out of him.

Sitting in the middle of the interrogation room was a gaunt Twi’lek whose Lekku have since come to look like slightly meaty ribbons. Cumquat stared at the party entering, but stopped to gaze at Taral for longer; seeing Taral’s uneasy past. Cumquat them spoke mostly in feverish and impassioned riddles; referring to “The blanket that covers the universe that ripples like waves”, and referring to the members of the party as being “Indentations in the blanket”, and “Able to altar the crashing of the waves against the blanket unlike those who don’t indent.” He spoke of Clars as not being an indent, but acting like one. He spoke of the one telling him; being the starry river from a far away sky speaking to him with ripples in the blanket. The Reborn Elder spoke of his purpose as making way for its design.

Cumquat was asked many questions, including who the force was that is trying to remake the world. Cumquat looked at Taral and told him he knows all too well.

The Sith.

Taral spoke of the True Sith being the culprit. Cumquat spoke only of them being but One Sith. Cumquat rambled on about the Starry River being an indent in the blanket, along with many of his heirs; among those Cumquat called the Usurper, and the Serpent. When asked of Brulu Aloc, Cumquat spoke of Brulu as being there by the behest of the ones who deserved to be there. Cumquat said that Clars had no right to be where he was. Brulu himself shouldn’t be there; even if he was asked by those deserving of the place.

Cumquat was then asked of Keiran. Cumquat refered to Keiran as “The Serpent”, who in turn leads those known as The Glutton, and Brulu. Taral spoke of wishing he stayed on Vorskarr; coming to the conclusion that Keiran is Orm. Cumquat continued that by the behest of the Serpent, his parents were murdered to seal the Serpent in with his place as an indentation. It was when Clars came that the Serpent demanded that Cumquat take him out with a bang; in order to surge popularity in the game Clars had no right to. So Cumquat took his blaster pistol, and ended Clars’ life out in the open.

By this time, the party has fully come together, and asked Cumquat the last questions, such as how Brulu can be removed from his unrightful place. Cumquat told the party to get Brulu’s datapad, and the contents will speak for itself. When asked if Cumquat had family, Cumquat talked about how he killed them in order to feel the ripples from the Starry River.

At that point, Cumquat was taken back in his cell. Then the party ordered for the police to take the datapad from Brulu Aloc. Hartel, Taral, and Visase accompanied the police en route to see to the deed in order to evaluate their performance. Hartel managed to resolve the password of Brulu’s datapad; and found all of the messages from Dijiec as Orm to Brulu, detailing plans to take over operations of the Hoopin’ Slam team with Hartel leaving home to spread the word of his game through the galaxy. The datapad went into detail about how Brulu only needs to help put on a good image for the game, while Emeriss spies will be sent to tamper with the last will to read Unus’ name on the proper dates; and then disposing of the official will.

When Dijiec went to go into hiding, Orm mentioned on the datapad of the slight change in hierarchy that took place; and then emphasized how important it was to keep a good public image on the game; since it will be through Hoopin’ Slam that he hopes to unite a galaxy that will no doubt feel under a pall in the near future.

With that evidence, Brulu was arrested, and then thrown into prison. The party claimed that the police handled the situation well, and then the police mentioned that with the evidence; they hope that the game will return to Stellartrotter hands.

The rest of the evening was uneventful when compared to the dinnertime fiasco. With the Figo’s Wind scheduled to make it to Ryloth in the late morning, the party decided that it was safe to call it a night.

The following morning, the party still didn’t fully recover from the revelations of the previous night. Zendral was particularly bent out of shape over seeing his old mentor, such that Thirra tried to comfort him in the only way she knew; by comparing it all to her not getting sweets as her father promised for doing her chores. This got Rea to intervene and tell Thirra of the finer points of comforting people, while the Figo’s Wind neared Ryloth.

Once the Figo’s Wind entered orbit over Ryloth, Tavish Brix visited the Nest to discuss the finer points of the mission on Ryloth; reminding the party of Brulu Aloc’s position and legal security of Ryloth, given that slavery isn’t as strong an offense as, say, murder. Tavish was still wearing his chest bandages and hobbling on a cane during the briefing. Orwell got suspicious of Tavish, and tried to check his injuries by hand. Tavish kept on insisting on his chest injuries from the crewmember that stabbed him repeatedly to Orwell, but Orwell insisted on checking the injuries for himself. Tavish’ bodyguards Korech and Voroth stood back to let Orwell do what he must. Tavish continued being defensive as Orwell evaluated the kind of wound that would require those bandages. Finally, Orwell came to a conclusion without ripping Tavish’s bandages open, and told Tavish that he lied to him for the last time. But instead of killing Tavish, Orwell walked back into the Nest; more out of respect of Tavish’s family than out of the kindness in Orwell’s heart.

Ryloth is an odd world, in that Ryloth is tidally locked with its sun. This means that the same side of Ryloth is always sunny, and the other half is always dark. The only habitable part on Ryloth is the equator- where it is always twilight. Ryloth is the home of the Twi’lek species, and is home to a feudal governmental system. In particular, to get at Brulu Aloc, the party will be going to the kingdom of Onek’weg where the game of Hoopin’ Slam was born.

Issilum flew the Nest through Ryloth’s dusty atmosphere, and then landed it in an underground city complex. Leaving the Nest, a twi’lek child announced the arrival of Hartel Stellartrotter, and immediately after the ragged masses crowded around the party grabbing at Hartel. Hartel kept on insisting that he had somewhere to be, but the crowd- while good intentioned, didn’t let up. The crowd broke up once two more well built Twi’lek wearing the same sports jerseys that Hartel was wearing announced their presence, and explained that Hartel had somewhere to be; but one of the athletes who was introduced as Tald’kina said that he would take autographs and pictures since he’s in not nearly as much of a hurry. The crowd slowly dispersed from Hartel and soon crowded around Tald’kina to get autographs and pictures.

The remaining Twi’lek initiated a complex handshake with Hartel and spoke in much the same way he did. Hartel introduced that Twi’lek as Pratari Rha who is an athlete with the Onek’weg Hoopin’ Slam team. The two caught up a bit, talking about the changes in their lives the past week. Pratari Rha talked about Brulu Aloc, who arrived about when Hartel left to spread the word of Hoopin’ Slam around. Despite Hoopin’ Slam being in the off-season, Brulu is not giving any of the athletes rest; as he is making them and the other Hoopin’ Slam teams play the game of Hoopin’ Slam for charity organizations to help with the Mandalorian war effort. Pratari Rha mentioned that Brulu Aloc had been wanting to meet Hartel since he came in. Pratari Rha voiced that it just isn’t the same without Clars Stellartrotter. Pratari Rha volunteered to take the party to the stadium as discreetly as possible so as to not get mobbed by fans. The party agreed.

Following Pratari through the darkened alleys of the underground Twi’lek city, the party makes it to the Clars Stellartrotter Memorial Stadium. Entering through the backdoor, Pratari leads the party to Brulu Aloc’s office; once the office of Clars Stellartrotter. Brulu Aloc, who is sitting at Clars Stellartrotter’s desk beckons for everyone to have a seat without so much as a greeting. Most of the party sits down, aside from Orwell. Brulu insisted that Orwell ought to sit down, but Hartel told Brulu that Orwell is fine where he is. Brulu told Hartel of the charity game that he has raised for the Luke Skywalker Memorial Orphanage on Coruscant, and, as the owner of the Onek’weg Hoopin’ Slam team, and the legal owner of the Hoopin’ Slam game; Hartel is obligated to play. Hartel agreed, and with that, Brulu mentioned that he was happy to finally meet the Onek’weg Hoopin’ Slam team’s star player up front. Brulu asked for the names of the party who accompanied Hartel. Orwell mentioned his name and that he likes to eat puppies. Brulu nodded at that, but the rest of the party kept silent. When Brulu told everyone to leave his office so that he can get back to work and that Hartel can get some practice in before the game this afternoon.

Orwell reached to shake Brulu’s hand, but held the handshake for a little bit longer than he ought to. Brulu returned to his datapad as the party left.

In the practice room, the party tried to figure out the next course of action, while Orwell hefted his Arg’garok- visibly upset. As he walked back to Brulu’s office, Hartel stopped Orwell telling him that “Brulu was his”. Orwell stopped at that, punched a wall so hard it dented a little, and left it at that.

Hartel, knowing that Clars had the Hoopin’ Slam team in his will to be inherited to the next of kin asked the party to go and grab the will from his house while he got to practicing for the game. Taral and Visase volunteered to go and see to it.

When Taral and Visase called for a cab, Zendral rushed out to get to them saying that he’d rather chase this string than watch sports. Everyone else got to watch the Hoopin’ Slam game getting prepped for. The game involves the players instilling their physical selves and traits in a brittle force reactive dust, and from there they dribble a gungan energy ball around and hope it doesn’t explode in their hands or explode their dust-built teammates up. The goal is to throw the ball into the opposing team’s hoop.

Taking the taxi to the windy and dusty surface of Ryloth; Visase, Taral, and Zendral saw what little agriculture happened on the planet, before stopping by one farm house that the taxi driver said was the “Famous Stellartrotter house”. Going inside, the house’s accessories and furnature was as it was a week ago. Zendral noted the few holographic portraits of the Stellartrotter family; with a happy father and mother around a baby Hartel. Zendral noted that the mother looked to have been added in to all of the portraits, and that Clars positioned himself to accommodate the edits.

Visase found the safe in the house to be slightly ajar. Rushing to investigate the safe, she stepped and broke a tool that was lying on the ground that didn’t look to belong in a residence. Zendral identified the tool immediately as being of Chiss make, and even had the Emeriss Arms logo on the back in small letters. Zendral managed to make the broken tool work with a little bit of rewiring; and found the tool was licensed to a Vass’inum’niche, who Zendral claimed was Sics’enuluo’hassiss’ secretary, and spoke with a slight stutter. With this bit of evidence; Taral, Visase, and Zendral tried to call for a taxi; but ended up with a very laid back Twi’lek van driver who volunteered to take them to the stadium. With Taral sensing the force to see if going with him was a good idea, Taral agreed to go with the driver.

Returning to the stadium, the three of them saw the last throes of the game, with Hartel and his team proving to the audience why they were so famous for playing the game. When the game ended, Hartel and Pratari Rha entered the conference room area covered in sweat. With the evidence of evidence tampering; and the lack of a last will and testament on Clars’ part, Pratari Rha suggested that everyone ought to check out the law offices beside King Onut III’s castle who no doubt will have a copy of the last will on file.

Deciding to go there next, the party prepared themselves to leave the stadium.

Following Visase’s lead, the party walked onto the central platform and activated the elevator mechanism on it. Finding themselves in the front lobby of Hasel Pilen’s office, the party found a strange lack of additional security measures; and the sound of a frustrated Sullustan cursing behind the doors that read “Mayor” on it. Orwell, finding that the door was locked remedied that problem with a well timed swing of his Arg’garok.

Breaking the door open, and prying the rest of it open, the party came across the source of that noise. Hasel Pilen was desperately trying to escape from the party in the escape pod equipped into the side of his office- only for the escape pod to not deploy due to there being a “blockage” in the passage that the pod is supposed to fly out of. Hasel yelled and cried about not wanting to die, but Visase and Taral told Hasel to calm down and tell them what he knows of Dijiec and Orm. While Hasel spoke what little he knew, a news report of the Galactic Federation’s victory over the Mandalorian world of Thorov continued on in the background. Hasel proved to be nothing more than a puppet to maintain a seat of power within the government for Orm. When Dijiec disappeared, one of Maccus’ agents, a man named Temnoz told Hasel Pilen to switch over from serving Dijiec to serving Orm instead, and his position in power will not change. Hasel complied, and asked few questions, but did complain about how the guards who he was told would defend him to death turned away from their duties.

The party gave Hasel and ultimatum; either come with them for the possibility of surviving, or remain in his office and be subject to whatever mercy Maccus can provide. Hasel, after much deliberation, agreed to just going with the party.

On the way back to the ship, the party encountered both Sun Heart and Stormcaller recovering from the battle who reminded the party that their turning away from Maccus is a risk, and that the party must remember them if they are to be saved. After reassuring the G’Nathir of their promise, they parted ways. Hasel wanted to shout something, but Orwell’s urging kept Hasel in line.

Back on the Nest, Issilum took the Nest out of Cloud City’s hangar and flew it towards the Figo’s Wind. Along the way, the party heard a news report about some violent civil unrest on the world of Dac stemming from the politicians and groups that were elected into offices suddenly turning away from the platforms they once stood on in order to pressure the companies of Mon Calamari to support Emeriss Arms. The Mon Calamari, being inclined to rebel against perceived injustice has taken matters into their own hands. The leader of Dac’s leading corporation Infinite Depths Inc; Natmar Smers mentioned how he had no choice but to fund Emeriss Arms’ efforts in the Mandalorian conflict.

Taral also contacted Jedi Master Evarr Dreskel about the situation of the Plathuui refugees and their G’Nathir defenders, requesting for the Jedi Order to come up with a way to extract them and bring them to a safer place. Evarr Dreskel admitted that he wasn’t in much of a place to really put in that kind of order but that he would get to it as soon as he could, or perhaps to mention it to Arken Taro instead. Evarr Dreskel was visiting the Jedi Temple of Ossus with Jedi Knight Hassan to gather clues on Dalbar’s motives. Their gathering of clues came in the form of meditation.

The two of them have discovered some traces in the force that came from Dalbar, connecting to the minds of very few Jedi Masters, who in turn gave out Dalbar’s additional orders in datachips issued to each Jedi leader on board a transport ship to evacuate them to a safe place, with Dalbar’s orders simply being “subdue the pilot, and take the Jedi to an isolated place and survive.” In other words, Dalbar was being very discrete, which, according to Dreskel, is exactly how Dalbar fights his foes. If Dalbar felt that he didn’t have to be discrete, he wouldn’t. Evarr mentioned that he and Hassan will look into the force some more to draw more conclusive evidence; but at this point, Evarr is keeping an open mind about what it is that is really going on. Taral mentioned a chilling thought he had about the possibility that the enemy managed to clone a clone of Dalbar and put him in the place as the real Dalbar, what with the discovery that the enemy has found ways to clone midichlorians. Evarr mentioned the logistics behind something like that, but then said that the beauty of that plan is that it is so improbably that nobody would believe the one revealing it.

During these conversations, Hasel Pilen got pretty tipsy off of the Dentari Moonshine that Kader served him.

Entering the hangar, the Nest was there just in time to see Master Urik Blop and the Jedi he was looking after leave in a transport ship, but not before waving at the Nest.

Taral ran off to see to business on the Figo’s Wind, while the rest of the party moved to the Bridge with Hasel Pilen in hand to meet up with Tavish. Making it to the Bridge, Tavish was nowhere to be found; however Tavish’s gamorrean bodyguard Korech was present. Orwell and Korech spoke to each other in the Gamorrean tongue, talking about how Tavish is in the medbay and is probably pretending to be sick to keep away from the party. Then the two of them laughed before Orwell led the party to the medbay where they reconvened with Taral who had finished his business.

Entering the medbay, the party found Tavish Brix lying on the top sheets of a bed with his chest covered in intense bandaging. Orwell asked if Tavish slipped on a bottle when he found a rat, while Taral asked if it was a shaving accident. Tavish insisted it was one of his crew members that stabbed a few times with a vibroknife, and that his crew was a rowdy bunch. The party let Tavish have custody of Hasel Pilen for his own purposes, while Tavish spoke more of the last target- the Twi’lek businessman Brulu Aloc. Tavish mentioned that Brulu was likely breaking some wills by taking the mantle of the owner of Ryloth’s Hoopin’ Slam team, so the likely thing to get Brulu to talk would be to get past his web of laws that he erected around himself much like how Azed Ther erected a security net on Naboo.

Tavish stated that despite his condition, he was still good enough to not have Issilum take command of the ship. Tavish talked about how he is going to set a course to Ryloth and fly over the Ryl province of Onek’weg; the birthplace of Clars Stellartrotter, inventer of the Hoopin’ Slam game, and also rumored to have been the home of Triumvirate Member Jedi Master Keiran before being trained as a Jedi. Just then, the alerts rang throughout the Figo’s Wind; which Tavish explained was likely due to the incursion of an interesting ship.

After limping to the bridge, Tavish found that the ship was an X-Wing starfighter, and the same model that was being used in the Battle of Thorov at that. Explaining that he was likely a deserter and would be worth a lot of money, Tavish commanded for the tractor beams to be activated to bring in their prize. The party followed the limping Tavish to the hangar, where a badly damaged X-Wing was put into.

Commanding for the pilot to get out of his cockpit and explain himself, the pilot did just that fearfully; believing that Tavish’s threats of selling him back to the Federation as a deserter is very likely. After mentioning that the Pilot was part of the first wave of the fleet to attack Thorov, the party took over in talking to him. His ship was holding out great against the Mandalorian’s firepower, and in many ways was actually defeating them. Then the second wave of the fleet arrived; and shut down any hyperspace jumping and modes of escape before they opened fire upon both the first wave of the fleet and the Mandalorians alike. Fortunately for the pilot, his droid managed to calculate a slight error in the formation of the star destroyers of the second wave, allowing them to make a hyperspace jump to Bespin where he was promptly captured by Tavish Brix.

Visase asked for the pilot’s name, and the pilot said that he was called Cadet Yun Brodal, and his astromech droid was F8-Z2. With that, Visase allowed him and the droid a spot on the ship. The X-Wing on the other hand is badly damaged, and cannot fit so well in the compartments of the Nest.

At that, Tavish ordered for the Figo’s Wind to make way to Ryloth while the rest of the party walked into the Nest to rest up, knowing it will take a day or so to arrive at Ryloth.

Inside the Nest, the holoprojector was busy showing an interview between a newscaster and the new CEO of Emeriss Arms; Faltar’irth’edina (Tarth). Tarth talked a good deal about the space platform over Coruscant’s star, explaining that it is a factory; and that his scientists have found out how to make it so that building platforms over high gravity fields can be cheaper in the long run over it being built over a low gravity center. Tarth talked about harnessing the sun’s energy to fuel the making of starships in his factory. Tarth also had his whole arm covered in bandages, which, when asked by the interviewer what that was all about, Tarth insisted that he was sick but hes getting better now.

During this interview, Zendral’s body language became more strained, and Polis found himself asking Zendral if Tarth was the same guy. When the rest of the party asked what was going on, Zendral mention that Tarth was his mentor back when he worked for Emeriss. Then when asked if Tarth was worse than Valen’resh’inrokini, Zendral merely said that “Tarth knows more than Valen’resh’inrokini knows”, and left it at that.

Then the party called Arken Taro to update him on the situation. Arken mentioned that what concerned him was how quickly the Federation blazed through Thorov- especially considering that Thorov was one of the most fortified worlds in Mandalorian space. The first thing the party did was send Yun Brodal to tell Arken his story about what transpired over Thorov, which served to worry Arken a lot more, and make him wonder a lot more about the implications. Arken said that he will need to look through the military files and see what was planned out in them to gleam some clues.

Visase also asked Arken about the situation with the Plathuui refugees to see where they should go. Arken was hard pressed to come up with an idea of where to safely put them, especially after mention that Maccus would likely pursue them if he knows where they are. Arken’s idea was to take a lot of good friends he has in the military who are transport pilots. They will then take the refugees to where the pilots think they should go. Arken then mentioned that he wouldn’t know where they were being taken, and nor should he know- because at this time, Arken is likely the first target on Orm’s watch for removal. With that, Arken asked about his family before hanging up the communicator to work on the new projects the party came up for him.

As the Figo’s Wind entered hyperspace, the party was eating dinner in the common area of the Nest with the news holoprojector playing out various tidbits of news. One of those reports was based on Jedi Master Camth Drucas’ Star Destroyer, which was now en route from Thorov to the planet of Mandalore. The interviewer spoke with a very cheerful tone with Camth Drucas over how the Mandalorian conflict was finally ending, and how it will end with a one on one fight with Mandalore the Reborn himself.

As Camth Drucas spoke of how confident he was feeling, Niuulaj entered the room holding a bowl of soup. But when Niuulaj turned to look at the holoprojector, his face became petrified, and Niuulaj dropped his bowl of soup. His petrified look contorted into anger, and then he lunged at the holoprojector grabbing onto it and staring at it closely before saying with heavily restrained anger, “Its him.” It was then that Niuulaj lost it, gibbering about how he knows that the man posing as Camth Drucas was Maccus. Verin tried to calm Niuulaj down with some humor, but that only got Niuulaj worked up, spitting curses at Camth Drucas/Maccus for being a fiend and an animal who took everything he had. The interview with Camth Drucas ended with a “By the end of this war, I can ensure that their next Mandalore will be one that will serve and support the Federation”. Niuulaj broke down at that point, with Verin and Henea both trying to lead Niuulaj to a table where he can talk about what exactly happened between him and Maccus.

Taral and Visase jumped on the action to quickly notify Arken Taro of their new revelation of where Maccus was. Arken was in disbelief, but then he let it sink in. Arken said that he would contact Evarr Dreskel about not getting the Jedi Order involved in the evacuation of the Plathuui refugees from Cloud City. Then Arken mentioned that the Jedi Order as a whole cannot be trusted, if someone such as Maccus had managed to infiltrate the order. Arken said that there are Jedi that are trustworthy, but just make sure not the get the Jedi Order itself involved. Arken then said his goodbyes, and prepared for a long night.

When the militia and G’Nathir cleared out of the halls to quell riots elsewhere, the party proceeded to the outside of Cloud City. Moving along the road, and evading the fighting on the streets and in the buildings- the party got a better glimpse of the unfortunate financial state of Cloud City- finding that Cloud City had to rebuild some of its structures to accommodate the holes already inserted into it, with some of those holes going all the way through to Bespin’s lower atmosphere.

Following the signs to the governmental district, the party came upon the elevator leading down to Hasel Pilen’s office, located in the middle of a raised platform that had holes in the side leading mostly down to Bespin’s lower atmosphere with only a few connecting areas in between to break the fall. The holes were such that it made a sort of suspended platform within the central platform the party stood on. Also standing beside the elevator entrance are two G’Nathir clad in metal plated armor imbued with the force; and wielded weapons similarly imbued. One them who went by the name of Szul Paszvithu “Stormcaller” wielded a hammer the size of Orwell’s Arg’garok. The other was named Dham Freyyanj “Sun Heart” who wielded a long sword and shield.

Stormcaller announced that he already sees the party’s intentions through their radiance; and even though the party wasn’t aiming towards any unnecessary death or even the death of the one that Stormcaller and Sun Heart swore to protect; the Cloud City mayor Hasel Pilen. The G’Nathir justified their need to protect by proclaiming their oath to their liege Maccus as payment for his sparing of the G’Nathir’s nation and people from the destruction to be wrought on their homeworld of Plathuui. Even as the party got the G’Nathir to admit the lack of honor Maccus had, the G’Nathir could not forsake their own; and that they saw that the party by and large felt the same. After the G’Nathir formally introduced themselves and introduced their challenge to honorable combat, the party accepted.

Stormcaller changed the weather immediately from a breezy-cloudy atmosphere to one thick with storm clouds, wind, and rain. The wind also funneled through the holes present on the platforms like a vacuum. Sun Heart emitted an aura of sunlight from herself that was like a calm spring day to the G’Nathir, and like a harsh summer day to the party. Even with Stormcaller showing off all he learned from Maccus- including launching lightning bolts on impact with his hammer; and Sun Heart catching Taral’s robes on fire; the party persevered with varying degrees of hurt thanks to the party focus firing Stormcaller to submission.

Watching the party persevere against two G’Nathir with energy to spare, Sun Heart surrendered; proclaiming that she and Stormcaller were defeated in honorable combat, and have done what they could for their liege; and now fears for her own people that she lead to the stars to get away from Plathuui’s decimation. The party suggested to Sun Heart that she ought to lead her people elsewhere, and stop serving the whims of others. Taral even suggested that his own order would take them in. While Sun Heart agreed to hearing Taral’s order out, Hartel revived Stormcaller with a Vital Transfer.

As Stormcaller and Sun Heart left their posts to leave from a duty to protect someone they could not protect, Sun Heart emphasized a need to hurry; for if Maccus caught wind that Stormcaller and Sun Heart were acting outside of his orders, he would no doubt make the G’Nathir regret not dying on the battlefield.

With the G’Nathir departing for the refugee camps, the party now stood over the elevator leading into Hasel Pilen’s offices.